To make things clear and it may worry a few Louth fans…..all bar one player that started had played for Louth before.
Let that sink in when you hear about an inexperience Louth side

There was four Louth debuts in total yesterday alot of people have asked me specifically who is Kevin Toner and Johnny Connolly is.

Kevin Toner is a corner back from the Pats and was Louths best performer yesterday.
Very solid and looks like he could play at this level.

Johnny Connolly was also bright light on a bleak yesterday.
He’s from the Newtown Blues and full back on their fantastic Minor team. He played his first full season at senior level last year at wing back for the Blues.

The other two debutants were Paul Berrill a long time staple on the Naomh Martin side and Tommy Durnin, who finally got his chance he’s tall and rangey proud day for Westerns club.

In fairness to all the debutants they showed well under very difficult debut circumstances.

The MissingAs far as I could make out The walking injured were 5.Adrian Reid (Mattock), Colm Judge (Blues), Darren O’Hanlon(Pats), Brian Donnelly (Cooley) and Anthony Williams (Dreadnots)
so then add College players 3.
Conor Grimes (DIT) kicked two points before being reported for being black carded after 13mins and setting up the winning goal?
Eoin O’Connor (DCU) played Midfield versus longford saturday
and
Patrick Reilly (UCD) named in the corner forward position, played full game.
They all won over the weekend.
thats 8 players certain to come back into the fold in total.

I’m not sure what the situation regarding Brian White, Kevin Rogers, Gary O’Hare and John Bingham is all panel members last season whether they have been cut or just unavailable for yesterday.

The experimental FutureYou may have noted the three minors on the bench for Louth yesterday debutant Connolly, Niall Sharkey (Glyde) and Paul Matthews (Fechins) who didn’t get a run.
These lads are earmarked for the future and even the experience on the bench yesterday will stand to them.
I’m all for this but I’d like to ask where is the likes of Peter Kirwan (Dreadnots), Stephen Keeley(Plunketts), Michael McKeown (Mattock), Cathal Bellew(Kilkerley), Liam Shevlin (Dreadnots) and Darren Marks (Cooley) 6 players off the top of my head that could make an impact NOW

The way we play?Kelly was ear marked as an Attacking manager that’s all well and good until you are dictated by the opposing team pulling a man and setting up defensively.
We looked rather clueless in what we were exactly trying to do.
Obviously this is what I mean by patience needed. This was Kelly’s first game in charge, of a new group so his methods will take a while to iron out. hopefully he’s good at ironing.

Positions, what positions?Derek Crilly was unusually picked at full back and despite being under constant barrage of ball coming in he did his best weirdly Dessie came on in the second half and played on the forty.

That kind of highlights where we are as a group at the moment.

Lads coming back and the Manager juggling between trying new things and bringing lads up to fitness ahead of the league.

Patience is a virtue and as louth fans, one we are all going to need going forward.

NEXT GAME UCD WEDNESDAY NIGHT 8PM HAGGARDSTOWN AS USUAL LIVE UPDATES HERE

Just an observation but the problem as I saw it yesterday was when Louth got into the opposition half there didn’t appear to be any specific plan of attack or instructions about opening up the kildare defence. Lots of handpassing sideways but little direct running or penetration. Some positives but still early days. Kildare co board charging one euro for a team sheet yesterday, hardly value for money!